So last week we checked out the first Club Etheria figure, Double Mischief, and I found her to be a double downer. Today we’re checking out July’s Club Eternia figure, Flogg and I actually have some high hopes for this guy. While I’m not really a fan of the New Adventures continuity I do rather like the idea of it and so far I’ve been really enjoying the wacky designs of the Space Mutant figures. Optikk was one of my all-time greatest “I have no idea who this guy is, but he’s awesome” figure purchases. I’ll note here that I was on my fifth or sixth Jameson when I decided to open Flogg and my alcohol addled brain failed to realize that I had not yet snapped an in-package picture of him. No biggie, we all know what the packaging looks like by now and Flogg’s is more of the same. With that having been said, let’s just jump straight to the figure.

Unlike a lot of the New Adventures characters, I sort of know who Flogg is. I don’t know him intimately, but he featured heavily on the few fleeting parts of the NA cartoon that I have seen. But I can set that aside, because I think this figure gets by solely on his own merits. The design reminds of some of the vintage Major Matt Mason alien designs. It’s probably the goofy retro alien head and the ribbed tubing on the arms and legs his space armor. The armor definitely features some reused parts. I see some Trap Jaw in there, and I’m pretty sure those are Hordak’s flipper feet. Still, the overall look of the armor is fresh to me and quite striking as well. There’s plenty of great detail in the vest and I particularly like the sculpted ammo pouches that line the back of his belt. The arm bracers and boots have all sorts of bolts and straps and the texturing on the shoulder armor is pretty nifty too. Besides the great sculpt, you also get a very snappy deco with the deep crimson contrasting beautifully with the metallic silver parts.

Flogg’s portrait is probably one of those love it or hate it kind of deals. He’s got a weird expression, sort of like he’s just realized Icarus has fired a missile at his face and there’s nothing he can do about it. I still like the head sculpt a lot, particularly the huge eyes and the way the helmet goes along with the raised collar. It almost looks like he could pull his head in like a turtle to protect himself. I seem to recall Matty originally showing off Flogg with a removable helmet, but that seems to have been nixed in the final release. That’s Ok. Options are nice to have, but I can’t imagine I would ever want to display him without his helmet anyway. What’s also cool is you peek down into the neck guard you can see his purple scaled skin runs all the way down his neck.

The articulation here offers no surprises. Ball joints abound in the neck, shoulders and hips. The arms have swivels in the biceps and wrists as well as hinged elbows. The legs have swivels at the hips and hinges in the knees. The ankles are hinged and also feature a bit of a lateral rocker. Flogg can swivel at the waist and while his ab-crunch hinge is buried under his vest, you can still get a wee bit of movement out of it.

There are two accessories included with Flogg, but only one is for him and that’s his… um… ah… weapon? I have no idea what this thing is. The bio talks about a whip of some sort. This is a pole with a control pad near the grip and what looks like a caltrop hanging from a string. Yeeeeeah. I got nothing. My cat does enjoy playing with it though.

The other accessory is a more Filmation accurate Power Sword, pictured up there in He-Man’s left hand. Honestly, I have no use or interest in this piece. I had to hold it next to the sword released with the original MOTUC He-Man just to make out what the differences were. It’s going straight into my bin of accessories.

I’m at a weird stage with the MOTUC line. I’ve never been hardcore with the fiction or the vintage toys, so Matty has already covered most everyone I was actively looking for. On the other hand, one of my favorite things about this line has been its ability to deliver figures that I love, which are practically unknown  characters to me. Flogg certainly falls into that category. I’m thoroughly delighted with this figure. He’s colorful, he’s wacky, and he’s going to look great on my shelf amidst the menagerie of other Space Mutants, once I manage to pick up more of them. As for now, he’s just chilling in the corner of the shelf with Optikk.

June’s Club Eternia subscription figure arrived a few days ago and I thought I’d go ahead and jump on the opportunity to get him featured and out of the way. He is Extendar and he is quite possibly one of the strongest arguments in favor of wrapping up this whole Club Eternia thing sooner rather than later. Maybe that’s a little harsh, because I truly do adore this line, and I’m sure there are collectors out there who were hoping against hope that Extendar would one day make the cut. More power to you, but for me this release is an example that when it comes to character selection, Matty is starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel. Yes, Extendar is my first disappointment of the 2014 Sub.

There’s the packaging. We’ve seen it time and again, so I’m not going to dwell on it. The front insert declares that Extendar is indeed the “Heroic Master of Extension” which also happens to be what the ladies call me. At least they do when I goose them an extra fifty bucks for the night. As you can guess from his moniker, Extendar’s claim to fame is that he can extend his cybernetic arms, legs, torso and neck. Yes, this guy pretty much renders Mekaneck completely redundant. “Oh, you can extend your neck? That’s cute. I can extend EVERYTHING!” And yet, part of me is sad that I own this figure and not Mekaneck, because I’m thinking he’s got to be a much better figure than Extendar. Of course, it doesn’t help that the character was a late release in the toyline, which meant that I had virtually no exposure to him at all beyond a faint memory of seeing him advertised on the TV.

In his regular un-extended form, Extendar is a woefully bland figure and that’s a shame because he features a lot of original parts in a line that is famous for recycling. The problem here for me is two-fold. First, the character design is painfully boring and the sculpt does nothing to prop it up. Extendar has a very knightly look with nearly featureless armor and even a faceplate to hide his head sculpt. There are a few flourishes here and there, but in a world full of as many fantastical freaks as Eternia, Extendar is practically unique in how generic and uninteresting he looks. The deco does nothing to pep things up. He features a bare pearlescent plastic with a red belt and some gold paintwork. I’m not a fan of the pearl plastic as it feels super soft and cheap and the gold paintwork on my figure is practically slopped on. Of course, you can jump on me by arguing that he’s being faithful to the vintage figure and I’d have to agree with you, but that doesn’t make me appreciate him any more.

Despite his gimmick, which we’ll get to in a moment, Extendar still manages to retain most of the articulation that has become standard in the Classics line. His chest armor is actually a vest worn over the buck, so that inhibits the ab crunch hinge, but everything else is there. Unfortunately, the plastic is so soft that trying to pose him almost always results in me popping off his arms and legs. And of course, unless you have his head extended, the articulation there is useless.

So, let’s talk about the extending gimmick. While the original toy just let you pull out the limbs by using a sort of telescoping feature, Extendar achieves his extensions by adding pieces to the arms, legs, torso, and neck. It’s the same idea we saw employed with figures like Mekaneck and Strong-Or and while it seemed like an OK substitute for the feature in those figures it feels more bothersome for a figure like Extendar where everything extends. I don’t know, having to keep six extra parts lying around seems like overkill to me. I will at least give some credit to the detail sculpting on the extension pieces. They look better than anything else on the figure. I’ll also grant you that Extendar has a freakishly imposing quality about him when he’s got everything extended out.

To add insult to injury, even Extendar’s accessories are disappointing. The lance and shield are a nice idea to further the knightly motif of the figure, but they each have their own problems. The paintwork on the lance is pretty sloppy and there’s a fair amount of scratching around the grips as if it was put into the figure’s hands already… and a lot. The shield, which is hinged so that it extends outward to become bigger is an interesting idea, but it looks unfinished. A big accessory like that is just screaming for a couple more paint hits. The plastic also has a lot of scratching on it making it look used. Also, what’s with all the hidden peace symbols on this guy? There’s one sculpted into at least one of his extension pieces and you can also clearly see one in the upper right corner of the circuitry pattern on the shield.

Sorry, Extendar… I’m just not digging you. At the very least I can say he looks somewhat interesting standing in the back of my MOTUC display with all his shit extended out. I also dig that you can at least combine two of the arm extenders to get one arm really long. I suppose you could do that for one of his legs too, but there would be really no point. Battle Lion may have been the first character in the 2014 Sub that I didn’t really want to have to buy, but at least he turned out to be an excellent figure. Extendar is the first release this year that I really don’t even want in my collection. Indeed, the only thing that keeps this guy from being the worst figure this line has produced is the existence of releases like Sir Laser-Lot, Cy-Chop, or that total piece of crap, The Mighty Spector. Of course, I wasn’t subbing then, so I didn’t have to buy them.  I’m actually kind of surprised that Matty would release a figure like this in the same month that the 2015 Subscription drive is starting, but then I may very well be in the minority on my general dislike for this figure.

This week was another Matty Sale Day and that made me realize that I’m still about a month behind on one of the items that I got from the May Subscription. It’s Battle Lion, and the fact that I haven’t opened him until now should give some indication that this figure was not high on my list of wants. In fact, Battle Lion is the first offering of the 2014 Sub that I would rather not have been committed to buy. That’s not too bad, considering we’re already halfway done with the year. Now, in fairness, my disinterest in this figure probably has to do with the fact that I don’t have the King Greyskull figure to accompany him. Anyway, let’s check him out and see if he surprises me.

Battle Lion comes in a package similar to the ones used for Battle Cat and Panthor. It’s a sort of trapezoidal window box with the familiar green stone Greyskull theme. My particular figure has one of his paw armor parts rattling around inside the box. The back taunts you with pictures of figures you can no longer buy from Matty and there’s the usual bio. As always, I love the presentation here. I was even tempted to keep the package to put him back in until I get him a proper rider. But thrift of space won the day and I pitched it. Let’s get this kitty out of the package…

So, if you haven’t guessed already, this figure reuses the body from Battle Cat and Panthor. I thought the body sharing between those two figures was pretty successful, even though I still don’t own a Classics Panthor. At least they were different colors and that alone helped set them apart as being rather unique. Here, Battle Lion is still green, albeit missing Battle Cat’s stripes, and so the reuse is a lot more obvious and thereby makes the figure a lot less interesting to me. On the surface it felt more like a a quick cash grab than most of the parts recycled figures that this line turns out. Again, that probably won’t be an issue for someone keen to get this character, assuming such people exist. I’m a fan of the MYP series, but I still don’t remember the episode with Greyskull and Battle Lion, so at some point I should pull out my DVD set and re-educate myself on the matter. Anyway, my own personal well of interest in MOTU lore is about as deep as a puddle, so clearly this figure wasn’t aimed t me. Still, that’s never stopped me from enjoying figures based off of unknown characters before.

The new bits include the head and tail. The tail is tufted at the end and on a ball and hinge joint for a little poseability. It certainly looks quite lion-y. The head sculpt is absolutely magnificent. The area around the eyes still seems to share a lot with Battle Cat, almost to the point where I’m wondering if this is a resculpt rather than a complete remold. The mane, however, is so majestic and the jaw, while very limited in its articulation looks great as well. Those giant saber-tooth fangs are just awesome and the paintwork on the teeth and mouth is actually better than on my Classics Battle Cat. If you’re going to repurpose a figure, this is how to do it. There’s nothing at all half-assed about this head sculpt. Quite the contrary, from a technical and artistic standpoint, I find it to be of a higher quality than the one used for Battle Cat. So, bravo to T4H for not phoning this one in as a quick-and-dirty project.

The armor is every bit as distinctive as the new head. It consists of four pieces: The saddle, which straps comfortably around his belly, the face plate, and two pieces for his front paws. Despite having fallen off in the package, I’m impressed at how well the paw pieces stay in place when clipped on. The face plate also stays on quite well and it doesn’t cause his head to droop like the weighty mask included with Battle Cat. In fact, I’d dare say that all this armor fits better. The saddle is very roomy and even has all sorts of controls and stuff sculpted into it and the mix of matte and gloss paint on all the armor pieces is certainly appreciated. Lastly, the two shields on the front of the armor are actually removable.

As expected from a total body recycle, Battle Lion features the same articulation as Battle Cat. It’s been a while since I featured Cat, so let’s run down the points. The hind legs rotate at the hips, are hinged at the knees and again at that second knee (for lack of a better term), and they are ball jointed at the ankles. The front legs rotate at the shoulders and have ball joints at the knees and ankles. The head can raise and lower and twist side to side and there’s a swivel in the body, just behind the shoulders. As already mentioned, the tail is on a ball joint. The joints are all nice and tight and Battle Lion is quite fun to play with and pose.

Don’t let my ignorance-slash-apathy for Battle Lion as a character fool you, he’s a magnificent toy. He looks amazing and in the end, I’ll certainly admit he makes for a good use of a recycled body. He even has me lamenting the fact that I don’t have the King Greyskull to ride him and seeing as how he’s going to be in my display anyway, I might as well try to pick up Greyskull for him. Well, played Matty, you will get even more money from me. Actually, you won’t as I’ll have to get him on the second-hand market, so… Haha… I win this round afterall! Granted, had Battle Lion been an optional purchase, I would not have bought him, but I can’t say as I’m pissed off for having to add him to my collection. If someone is going to force toys on me, they might as well be awesome ones like this kitty. My original intentions were to flip him on Ebay without even opening him, but very few MOTUC toys have disappointed me, and Battle Lion continues to press that trend!

It’s that time again, kids! My monthly box from Matty Collector hit my doorstep earlier this week. Considering the sale was on the 15^th and I got my sub figure on the 20^th, I’d say that’s record time. It almost justifies the crazy shipping prices that Matty charges. Anyway, this month’s figure is Blade… yes, the bald eye-patch guy from the 1987 Masters of the Universe movie. I have absolutely no idea what the general nerd reception is for that movie these days. I kind of liked it back then, but I wasn’t a hardcore MOTU fan so it probably didn’t offend me as much as some. It’s probably been 20 years since I’ve seen it, and no… I am under no obligation to watch it for this review. I tell ya what, if Matty gets around to doing one more movie figure, I’ll watch it for that review. There, the gauntlet has been thrown down. Now, let’s look at the figure.

Blade may be from the movie, but you wouldn’t know it from the packaging. There’s no sticker or anything declaring his Hollywood origins. You just get an awesome card and bubble with that glorious Greyskull-inspired green brick deco. The insert dubs Blade as the “Evil Master of Swords” and the bio on the back even gives a nod to the 1987 movie plot. I love the idea of folding all of this stuff into one uniform line of action figures and even if it does mean I have to watch the movie again, I really do hope we get more figures from the film. I’ll also confess that I never knew there was a Blade figure in the original MOTU toyline. Nope, I only just learned that today while poking around the Interwebs to remind me a little bit about the character in the film.

There he is, and might I say, “Damn, this guy is bitchin!” He’s like some kind of techno-sky-pirate-warlord from one of those late-night Cinemax Post-Apocalypse movies. And I mean that in every way as a compliment. I don’t even know where to begin with this guy. I guess I’ll start with the armor. Blade is wearing a soft, rubbery vest and skirt that’s sculpted and painted to look like chainmail and the effect works brilliantly. If I wasn’t already in the know, I’d have to get in pretty close to see that all those chain links are faked out, especially with the way it falls down between his legs. It’s brilliant! The chain coat is beautifully adorned with a silver medallion in the center. The huge slabs of shoulder armor may be a tad much, but… hell, why not? In for a penny, in for a pound. If you’re going for a high intimidation factor, and I do believe this guy is, you might as well go all out and turn your shoulders into razor tipped walls. The whole ensemble is nicely rounded out with rings of sculpted daggers around each of his thighs and a dart gun mounted on his left bracer. Christ, this is one outstanding battle ensemble!

The portrait is pretty sweet too. Blade’s bald head sports a nasty scar that disappears under his patched eye and he’s wearing a fierce scowl. His ears are covered with bladed back-swept wings and he’s even got a pair of spikes protruding out from his chin. What the hell are those for? Does he chin butt people? Sure, it’s crazy… crazy awesome! The hell with Eternia, Blade would be right at home in the Badlands, manning a custom gun turret on top of a battle wagon made out of a converted ’76 Ford Torino. Don’t tell me you can’t picture that!

Blade comes with his trusty swords, each of which fit into loops on his belt for convenient carrying. He has one straight broadsword and one slightly curved cutlass-style weapon. Much has been made by the fan community about the paint operations being nixed from these swords. The cutlass is completely unpainted and the broadsword just has red paint on the crossguard. I get it, they would have looked better painted, but considering how much spectacular work was done on the figure itself, I can live with the unpainted weapons. Besides, they may still turn up all painted up in a weapons pack somewhere down the road. Of course, having to buy the painted swords separately will just give the fans something else to complain about.

You also get a laser whip. I did not at all remember Blade having this in the movie until a friend set me straight and showed me some pics of He-Man getting the shit whipped out of him by Blade. It’s a cool accessory, but it doesn’t quite live up to the weapon in the film. Plus, I get a bit of a Gummi-Worm vibe from it. I don’t think I’ll display it with the character. His name is Blade not Whip, I want him to have his swords at the ready, not a licorice candy whip.

Blade is yet another reason why I’m so very happy I subbed Club Eternia this year. Mattel went absolutely apeshit on this guy with all the new sculpting and paintwork and they turned out a truly amazing figure. Even if I wasn’t collecting this line, I think I’d want to have this guy on my shelf just because he’s dripping with 80’s sci-fi badassery. You’re not going to the display shelves yet, Mr. Blade. No, you’re going to hang out on my desk for a while so I can play with you on my downtime. Keep it up, Matty. You’re making 2014 a great year!

So far I’ve been mighty happy with my decision to sub to Club Eternia for 2014, but I knew sooner or later that contentment could be shattered and this month’s release looked like it might be the one to do the job. The New Adventures line never meant anything to me as a kid, and I never looked twice at it as an adult collector either. But I never let my ignorance of a specific character mar my potential enjoyment of a figure and there’s no denying that Optikk was a great addition to my collection. And so I try to approach the New Adventures figure, Hydron, with an open mind. Let’s see if he can win me over. Also, apologies for this feature being a little late, but I could only squeeze one Matty figure into the tail end of March and obviously I went with The Unnamed One!

Gone are the white mailer boxes and in their place are brown ones that look like they’re made out of recycled Shop-Rite grocery bags. Oddly enough, mine also said Grizzlor on the back of the box. But open that sucker up and you’re treated to the same glorious Greyskull-themed package we’ve all come to know and love. Hydron’s package has a “Galactic Protectors” sticker on the bubble signifying that he comes from the New Adventures of He-Man mythos. There’s nothing else new and noteworthy here, so let’s bust him out.

While Icarus was clearly designed to fight in the skies, Hydron battles evil below the waves. I get a very strong Centurions feeling out of these guys, and that’s not a bad thing at all. Hydron comes fully decked out in his underwater gear, the centerpiece of which is the rubbery chest piece that fits over the figure’s buck. It’s sculpted with various hoses and vents to keep him alive during his underwater doings. In a place as wacky and diverse as the Masters universe, you’d think The Guardians could find someone that can actually breathe underwater to take care of your underwater ops. But nope, that falls on this guy. Other notable points of interest on Hydron’s costume include webbed flippers on his feet and a sculpted knife strapped to his right leg.

Hydron features a clear dome and a backpack with breather hoses, all of which can be removed to get a better look at the head sculpt. The portrait includes a very retro-looking fin helmet and he has a red breather mask permanently attached to his face. Why wear the breather mask in addition to the dome and breather apparatus? I don’t know, why does the gardener have a giant robotic elephant head? It’s best not to ask these questions. It is, however, annoying since Hydron didn’t always walk around wearing it in the cartoon. It kind of defeats the purpose of being able to take off his gear.

In addition to his removable gear, Hydron comes with a crazy looking trident gun. It’s a cool design, but as far as MOTUC accessories go, it’s pretty weak. It’s cast in super soft yellow plastic with no paint apps. Hydron can hold it in either hand, but it seems to be designed for his left. On the plus side, it is designed so it can be worn on his belt by passing the handle through the loop.

I’ll confess, there are plenty of other characters I would have rather had occupy this slot, but that doesn’t mean I’m angry or bitter that Hydron was included in the Sub. At least I have someone to keep Icarus company on the shelf. I don’t know what the general feeling among the Masters community is about New Adventure characters in the sub, but I’m it for the figures and Hydron is certainly a pretty cool figure. I probably wouldn’t have bought him Day of Sale, but considering how much I love Two Bad, Glimmer, Modulok, and The Unnamed One, I don’t have a problem having this one thrown into the mix.

I don’t tend to venture too deep into the Masters Fandom, it seems to be a pretty angry place these days, but I gather that today’s featured figure was none too popular among those ranks. A mystery figure said to be steeped in Masters Lore and dangled before the fans as a major incentive to get subscriptions in 2014, he is The Unnamed One. Gorpo, The Evil Lord of Chaos, the creator of The Snakemen and one of the major players in the struggle for power in Eternia and beyond is revealed to be… a Trollan Wizard. And a whole lot of Masters fans absolutely lost their shit in the aftermath.

Yup, there he is. The subscription only figure shipped along with March’s monthly figure. I don’t know what Matty was thinking when they planned this release, especially knowing what a fickle and unforgiving bunch the Masters collectors can be. They must have known that this was going to invoke fanwide butt-hurt on an atomic level. It almost seems as if they are actually trolling their own customer base. Or is that trollan? HA! Anyway, as many of you may know I’ve always been into Masters for the figures first and the fiction a very, very distant second, so if you’re looking for me to fly into a drunken rage over this figure, you’re going to be disappointed. Quite frankly, the idea of getting a figure of an evil Trollan Wizard is pretty damn cool in my book. Let’s bust this little guy out and see what we’ve got.

I really do love the character design here. Since most of my exposure to Trollans comes from the annoying and blundering Orko, it’s very cool to see a menacing and evil member of the race. The very idea of a spell slinging Trollan Warlord intrigues me. Gorpo comes clad in tattered dark blue robes with some nasty looking trappings sculpted in. The detail on his belt consists of pouches and a dagger, he’s got chest and shoulder armor and a sculpted red skull in the center of his chest. The stock portrait includes a purple hood with a drooping point, long blue ears, and two sinister yellow eyes that peer out above his purple mask. I used to doodle guys like this back in my AD&D obsessed days. In fact, Gorpo would look right at home on the cover of a TSR module, hovering around some lair full of dusty books and summoning an unholy beast from a stone well. I just dig everything about this guy!

You also get a swappable head with a helmeted portrait. The sculpting on this piece is a lot more intricate as the helmet is rather elaborately decorated with some scrollwork and spikes. There’s a mohawk-style crest on top and Gorpo’s long ears protrude from each side. If I had ears like that I think I’d want them protected a little better in combat! The helmet matches the armor on the body pretty well. It’s undoubtedly a very nice alternative portrait, but I think I’ll stick to the hooded one for my regular display.

In addition to the extra head, The Unnamed One also comes with a few more goodies. You get the same style flight stand that came with Orko. It’s a little bigger and it just plugs into the socket under the robes and supports the figure quite well. You also get a magic wand and an effect piece. The wand is a far more formidable than the wimpy one that came with Orko and Gorpo can hold it comfortably in his right hand. The green orb in the center of the head catches light pretty well giving it a neat glowing effect. The effect part slips onto Gorpo’s other hand and looks like he’s shooting magic. As far as effect parts go, it’s not too bad, but these generally tend to wind up in my dreaded Tote of Forgotten Accessories.

You also get a couple of pieces of ephemera. A Mini-Comic is included in The Unnamed One’s package. I know fans go nuts over these, but I gave it a quick read through and it didn’t do anything for me. I think I would have been a lot more interested if it was rooted the more familiar and contemporary period. I wasn’t a big fan of the art either.

On the other hand, the Horde Map is a very cool bonus. It’s not actually packaged with Gorpo, but rather comes with him as part of the Sub incentive. Matty has been doing these maps as part of the subs all along, but since 2014 was the first time I subbed Club Eternia, this is my first map. I had actually forgotten all about it until I saw it in the box. It’s a big colorful piece of art that I wouldn’t mind hanging someday if can find the wall space.

To the hardcore Masters fans who are rankled by this release… I get it. I really do. You were expecting something unspeakably bad ass and even if there hadn’t been a long wind up of suspense, most of you still would have found Gorpo here disappointing.  Fans have also been grousing about the price, reminding us that Orko came with a whole Prince Adam figure crammed into the bottom of the package. I’d point out that The Unnamed One is considerably larger than Orko and the sculpt is vastly more intricate. I’ll concede that as a smaller figure he is definitely pushing the envelope when it comes to this line’s price point, but it’s not as bad as everyone is saying. Nonetheless, with expectations running wild, I doubt there’s anything I can say that’s going to swing the sour opinions on this figure. Nor am I out to do that. I think he’s a great release, and I’m glad to add him to my shelves.